Taipei will be reopening the city’s online vaccine appointment website in early February to finish off its stock of 80,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) COVID-19 vaccine, and ban eating in movie theaters in response to the recent spike in infection cases.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (???) said the website will be reactivated between Feb. 4 and 5 for citizens to make vaccine appointments, with the rollout scheduled to begin on Feb. 7.

The decision to reopen the site came following Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (???) recent statement, where he revealed that the general public’s preference for the Moderna vaccine over other brands had resulted in Taipei still having around 80,000 doses of the BNT vaccine.

During an interview with local press, Tsai encouraged Taipei residents to get inoculated with BNT, as it is an mRNA-based serum much like Moderna.

The website will be reopened to both help deplete the stock as well as sufficiently distribute the amount of vaccines at walk-in vaccination sites.

Walk-in locations such as the Taipei Main Station have been suspended since Jan. 27 for the Lunar New Year holiday, but will resume service on Feb. 7 to offer 600 doses of BNT and AstraZeneca respectively every day.

He also said that aside from BNT, the city also has around 6,000 doses of locally-developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine in reserve as well.

However, in order to avoid confusing residents, the website will only take appointments for BNT, although the city is mulling the possibility of including Medigen as an option at the Taipei Main Station walk-in site.

Tsai also touched on the city’s Department of Information and Tourism’s Monday announcement on the suspension of eating inside movie theaters.

Tsai said the limitation will be in place starting Feb. 1, Tuesday, and was proposed due to the fact that indoor dining has been one of the biggest concerns when it comes to the spread of the virus.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel